In Autumn 2021 I worked with the company Pocket Forests. I illustrated the native trees they plant. The trees I drew were drawn from saplings they had planted at either the Mercy School in Inchicore, Dublin or the large planters at Digital Hub in Dublin 8. The saplings include hawthorn, guidler rose, elder, downey birch, rowan, hazel, spindle, dog rose, crab apple and wild cherry.
Pocket Forests used the illustrations for a booklet they give to communities who plant their trees so they can identify the saplings.
Please see the wonderful Pocket Forests website for more information on the biodiversity and community work they do:
A Pocket Forest is a “method of planting native trees, shrubs and wildflowers in small urban areas adapted from the work of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawake who created Tiny Forests. We recreate layers of a forest: a canopy layer of tall trees, a shrub layer and ground cover. …
Miyawake-style forests speed up this natural evolution by densely planting lots of species of young trees, shrubs and wildflowers grown from wild seed. “